Thread: The $1000 Table-Saw

Checked out your website Wayne, great job

Thanks John

I need to do some better shots of the new Workshop as it has lots more space than the current pictures show.

Wayne, great site...don't suppose you could share the plan for those plant holders.....

Mate,

I'd love to but I just made em up as I went..... Nothing on paper. Trick is to make a slat bottom with good spaces for drainage... then wood dont rot

hi john i'm another happy ks 12k owner haven't had it long but is doing a great job so far.
had much the same trouble, i wanted a 10amp and most are 15amp, was told most cabinet/contractor saws out of china are 15amp even in the 1 to 2hp range and the ones out of tawain are 10amp up to 2hp and 15amp after that.
got mine for $850 with a blade from carba-tec melbourne last month as they had a sale on.
all the best with your choice

simon

Reading some of the posts about table saws, I wonder if we are getting too hung up with 1 thou or 10 micron accuracy when we are working with a material like wood. After the majority of my life had been spent making furniture and boats with a 7 1/4" hand held circular saw and an old Black & Decker 1/4" drill as the only power tools and the occasional use of my father's Junior Joiner, I thought I was in heaven when I bought a second hand TS10A contractors saw. Now, the table may not be 100% flat and the fence is now much squarer since I made a new one, but should I be expecting accuracy better than 1mm? And if I do, is my finished job going to look any different? If we do want ultra accuracy, should we then expect not to have to sand down but apply finish straight off our machines? Sheraton and Chippendale didn't have the luxury of a Jet or Leda and they still managed some pretty good work.
I bought my saw at a bargain price because the previous owner couldn't get it to cut straight, mainly because he'd assembled it incorrectly! About an hour's work had it working to a better degree of accuracy than I will probably ever need. Am I therefore a Luddite?
Cheers
Graeme

We'll see if this is a thread stopper, too.

Reading some of the posts about table saws, I wonder if we are getting too hung up with 1 thou or 10 micron accuracy when we are working with a material like wood.

Hi Graeme

"A threadstopper?" Nah... Mostly I agree with you. Keep in mind that I use my tablesaw about 5% of the time, my bandsaw about 70% and handsaws the remaining 25%.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Surely it's horses for courses.

If you have some skill and understanding and you take some care and time, you can get good results from most tools.

I'd guess that most queries of the 'what should I buy type' are from folks (and I'm often one of them) seeking to benefit from the experience of others with a tool or technique that we don't have ourselves.

Any advice is necessarily limited in value because the context within which the wisdom of use developed cannot also be transmitted. Ie. the tacit knowledge of the skilled worker.

I get a lot of benefit from these threads about which saw to buy. I've used two tablesaws in my life (both at the course that I do part-time). And I really don't know a lot about them or what I should be looking for, left to my own devices. But this site enables me to look at a wide range of opinions, view some testimonials, and become aware of the choice out there. Even though I'm leaning towards the dark side, I recognise the use I will get out of a TS, because I've been taught how to use one and I've used a whole raft of jigs on them (which means I've got a lot of initial jobs to do when I get mine set up!).

And I've bought one - a Carbatec MJ2325B. I think it suits my requirements and it certainly suited my budget. Mind you, I've had it over a week now and we can't spare the space in our workshop yet for me to set it up! We've had two containers of stuff arrive in the last week and we have no space left at all - but I'm going to fix that in the next week or so...

Like Graeme above, I'm not sure I will need laser-sight accuracy from my machine. I'm sure that my skills (and level of patience) won't allow me to achieve micron levels of accuravy in any case, but I'll get it close enough and then start using it. Maybe if I get a bit better at this hobby I'll need to re-tune it, but I reckon I'll get an awful lot of use out of a machine that is 99% right without being in the slightest bit concerned about that last 1%! I'm just happy to have one - now to get it working.

I have my eye on the Carbatec MJ2325B and the Jet JWTS-10 family so Poppa hurry up and get yours out of the box and let us know how it goes

I'm trying! We had the workshop stuffed to the gunwales with furniture last week. We're moving mountains of it as fast as we can get it in the shop and sell it. Not fast enough for my liking of course...

Keep us informed Poppa please

Hello All,

After Umm'ing and Ahh"ing for a month I finally laid down the hard earned cash for a table saw.

Reading and re-reading every thread on the forum really helped/confused me/put me in a quandry... Of course if money were no option I think I would have gone the Jet supersaw, but money doesn't grow on trees and the financial controller (SWMBO) would have had a fit... Next desirable is the "Default" standard, the TSC-10HB but once again $1600+ is a lot of coin for the wife to approve. Seeing as my last table saw was self made from parts and scrap wood, I would have a limit to work to. Which turns out was $1000.

So, this thread was extremely relevant and appropriate. After comparing for too long and rejecting the "contractor style" saws, I finally decided on the MJ2325B. Now I am aware that this is sold by many different people branded as different names (HAFCO, CARBATEC and LEDA to name a few) so I compared apples with apples and looked at the Carbatec model first and then the Hafco version. The hafco version is on sale this month for $895 and the Carbatec version is $995. From what I could see the Carbatec model on the shop unit had a fair bit better fence than the Hafco model and even though it was $100 more I thought It was the preferred option. Tried haggling with the sales guy, but doesn't budge on base price, but throws in a really nice ripping blade valued at $50. So I plonk down my hard earned and make my was to dispatch. Being as it was 210 kg I asked the chap I bought the unit from to help me to break down the box into smaller chunks. Still insanely heavy, at least all but one piece could be handled by one man (the centre core/table weighs about 90kg on its own) so I headed home and with the assistance of a neighbour, had it in the shed ready to assemble. About 4 hours later assembled and ready to go except for the fence.

Open the fence box only to discover that it is exactly the same as the unit from Hare and Forbes - which really makes my blood boil as I could have had the same identical unit (with a different cabinet colour) for $100 cheaper.

This was at 1 a.m. so my frustration would have to wait...The next day I phone up and basically vent to the poor lady. She is excellent and patient while I explain that I would like the other fence, the one I saw in the shop.

The lady (Liz, I think...) explains that there is no other fence and that there has been a mix-up. I ask for the salesman whom I had talked to at length the day before especially about the fence being better than the Hafco model. Lady apologizes and tells me that salesman is away today but she tells me to bring the saw back for a refund. I explain that the saw is sitting assembled sans fence in my shed and to her credit pulls a winning move - she tells me that if I bring the blade back she will refund me the $100 difference, which I take up.

So I return home, assemble the fence, plumb in the power and start the beast up...what a ripper!(dims the lights on startup but the old saw did the same)

The blade that comes with the saw is a combo unit leaning more towards cross cutting duty, but will probably replace it down the road. No real hurry as it cuts beautifully, with my concerns about the fence unfounded.

About the only thing I would put on it is the electronic display that makes setting sizes more easy than the current optical that is subject to error.

My thoughts are that it is a very good saw and for $895 it is a great price. It has got a ton of grunt befitting its 3Hp motor and the tilt/rise & fall mechanisms feel solid and robust. So anyone sitting on the fence and unsure about what to get for under a gorilla, the MJ2325B is an excellent saw and should be seriously on your short list.

There is only two real drawbacks - for those of a dado persuasion is that the arbour is not set up for dados. but that has never worried me as I have always trenched using my router anyway... The other is the dodgy joke of an overhead guard. But I am building one attached to the roof that will lift up to overcome this problem.

Hope this helps.


Scott in Peakhurst.

I have just bought a MJ2325G, a basic 10" saw 2nd hand, works great. $400.00